A Bangladeshi worker tragically lost his life in an air strike in Lebanon, according to a statement from Dhaka's foreign ministry on Sunday. The ongoing Israeli bombardment has severely hindered efforts to repatriate Bangladeshi citizens. The foreign ministry estimates that between 70,000 and 100,000 Bangladeshis are currently working in Lebanon, many of whom are laborers or domestic workers.
The first repatriation flights, organized by the Bangladeshi government in collaboration with the UN's International Organisation for Migration, successfully brought scores of Bangladeshis back from Beirut last month. However, the situation took a grim turn when Mohammad Nizam, 31, was killed on Saturday afternoon in a reported strike while stopping at a coffee shop on his way to work in Beirut. Bangladesh's ambassador to Lebanon, Javed Tanveer Khan, confirmed the tragic incident in a statement.
Mohammad Jalaluddin, Nizam's brother, revealed that Nizam had lived in Beirut for over a decade and had not been among the estimated 1,800 Bangladeshis who had registered for an evacuation flight home. Jalaluddin expressed his family's desire to bury Nizam in their ancestral home, awaiting the government's response. However, senior Bangladeshi foreign ministry official Shah Mohammad Tanvir Monsur highlighted the challenges in arranging a flight into Beirut due to the ongoing war.
Israel has significantly escalated its air campaign against Lebanon's Hezbollah group since September, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. A subsequent ground offensive was launched to push Hezbollah back from Israel's northern border. Hezbollah has retaliated by firing thousands of projectiles into Israel over the past year, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis. The conflict, which began on September 23, has reportedly claimed at least 1,930 lives in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, though the actual number is likely higher due to data gaps.
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